We have previously reported that our mealworm-based dry petfood ingredient, Protein70, is well within regulatory limits for contaminants[1]. In this article we report that the same is true for our wet protein ingredient,WetPro Furthermore, we share results from a new study that has shown that dogs fed a diet containing our Protein70 ingredient maintain ideal health parameters over a six-month maintenance trial.
At the end of the breeding stage, the healthy mealworms are processed into our Protein70and WetPro15 protein ingredients. We now have data that show that our wet protein ingredient, WetPro15, is as low in potential contaminants as Protein In keeping with our own internal standards, we have additionally measured the quantities of other mycotoxins OchratoxinA, Deoxynivalenol, Aflatoxins B2, G1 and G2 ,for which no regulatory thresholds have been defined, and found them to bepresent in similarly very low concentrations.
In every case, WetPro15 contains only a small fraction of the allowable threshold concentration: for mercury, that fraction is less thanone-tenth; for cadmium and arsenic, approximately one-hundredth; and for lead,less than one-thousandth. In every test to date, the concentration of pesticide has been too low to be detected by the equipment.
The fact that both our protein ingredients contain such low quantities of potential contaminants is a reflection of the health of the mealworms that we breed in our vertical farms at Amiens and Dole. This is facilitated by the fact that a mealworm farm is an indoor space, in which conditions can be carefully and precisely controlled, hence limiting contamination. The fact that the substrateis dry is an advantage in that it limits the potential for development of microbiological contaminants, and an internal sanitary control plan specifies additional thresholds for foreign objects, microbiological species, and living insects in this substrate.
We monitor the mealworms at each stage of their lifecycle to ensure they are healthy and growing well. All of this helps to ensure that our mealworms β the raw material for our protein ingredients β are of such high quality.
